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Inaugural
Addresses
On the brink of Civil War President Lincoln's Inaugural
Address attempts to avoid the inevitable.
"In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow country men, and not in mine, is the
momentous issue of Civil War. The government will not assail you. You can have no
conflict, without being yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath registered in Heaven
to destroy the government, while I shall have the most solemn one to preserve, protect and
defend it. I am loth to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies.
Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection."
1.Lincoln's 1st Inaugural Address
2.Lincoln's 2nd Inaugural Address
3.Jefferson Davis' Inaugural Address |
